Owners and managers should have a job description, and there are differences in what should be in that job description. The first item should be putting a title on your job and getting key elements included in the description. For many dairy operators, this may involve making a significant attitude change in their thinking. Most consider themselves “farmers.” Historically, farmers think of themselves as “doers.” Farmers do things. The change needs to include the idea that farmers also manage.

Traditionally, veterinarians working with milk quality and mastitis control programs have used records to some extent but have relied mostly on farm and milking time observation for evaluation and diagnosis and problem solving. However, in recent years, developments in computer handling of data along with newer techniques for bacterial culturing have provided a set of tools that allows diagnosis and monitoring to be done more easily and accurately.

By now you may have seen that preliminary incubation count (PIC) for raw milk is not just a laboratory recreational activity, but it is a number that affects your milk price. The fluid milk processing industry has recently taken a big interest in this number because it believes two things: 1. PIC is a good predictor of shelf life, and extending shelf life reduces the milk dumped from store shelves.

Milk quality is dependent on three key areas: milking routine; cows and their environment; milking equipment.

Salmonella and Clostridial bacteria can be the cause of serious gastrointestinal diseases of cows and calves. While both types of bacteria can target the intestinal tract, cause death by the systemic effects of toxins and show up clinically as bloody diarrhea, they are very different in many other respects.

Late lactation is an important, yet often overlooked part of the lactation cycle. It’s easy to let cows coast to the finish line, getting fat and lazy along the way.

The “true type” cow for the progressive dairy producer is the “four-event” cow – a cow that freshens, gets bred, is confirmed pregnant and later is dried off. Cows that only have these four “events” in a given lactation are the cows that generate profit for the dairy enterprise.

One afternoon I sat in a stuffy high school classroom and listened to the drone of the teacher’s voice. I was drifting off to sleep when I heard something that piqued my interest. “If an enemy wanted to destroy our government and freedoms, they would take the American Flag and cut it in pieces and give everyone a tiny piece.” I sat up and stared at the teacher. I didn’t understand.

Never was my observation “It’s easy to be green when it’s not personal,” more obvious than today. As population increases and suburbanization encroaches on previously rural countryside, each new settler or squatter must face their own deleterious impact on the environment.

Although lameness has multifactoral causes, an intense lameness prevention program will minimize losses and save cows. Lameness prevention protocol includes: •Observe cows daily for lameness. •Detect lameness early through locomotion scoring.